Fears for Chechen refugees as camp is cleared

By Michael Wines in MoscowNovember 29 2002

Russian forces have begun to eject at least 1000 Chechen refugees from a tent city in south-western Russia, raising concerns that tens of thousands of homeless civilians who have fled the conflict in Chechnya may soon be forced to return to a war zone.

Human rights observers said troops had sealed off a camp near Aki-Yurt in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, which borders mostly Muslim Chechnya, and had begun evicting its residents on Tuesday.

The Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship, a Russian activist group, said troops had begun cutting up tents and that the Government had set a deadline of December 21 for clearing the area of refugees.

Ingush officials later denied issuing such an order, but human rights observers who tried to approach Aki-Yurt on Wednesday were turned away by Russian forces and domestic intelligence officers.

In contrast to sprawling tent cities near the Ingush capital, Nazran, the Aki-Yurt camp is isolated and close to Chechnya, making the task of returning refugees to their old homeland easier.");document.write("

advertisement

");
}
}
// -->

Rachel Denber, a deputy director of European and central Asian affairs for Human Rights Watch, said the evictions were a dry run for a more sweeping effort to clear refugees from Ingushetia, where as many as 150,000 civilians are reported to have fled since the war in Chechnya broke out in 1999.

Fewer than 30,000 are in internationally financed and managed camps. The rest have moved into friends' and families' homes or live in squalor in farm outbuildings and abandoned houses.

Russia has long claimed that the Ingush refugee camps are a hiding place for guerillas and their sympathisers, and Ingushetia's regional government has complained that it is being overwhelmed by the demands of caring for hordes of unwanted squatters.

On Wednesday international officials protested over the dismantling of Aki-Yurt as a potential violation of human rights. Aid officials with the European Union said the forced return of Chechen refugees "would be against international humanitarian law as well as conventions that the Russian Federation is party to".

The United Nations' emergency relief co-ordinator, Kenzo Oshima, said Chechen refugees did not want to return because of "insecurity and the lack of shelter, basic services and economic opportunities".

One refugee family said it was being forced to leave for the Chechen capital, Grozny, with 30 other families after local officials threatened to start burning their tents on December 1.

Many other refugees said they were afraid to return to Chechnya, where civilians must dodge not only dragnets by the Russian soldiers who rule the region in the day, but coercion by guerillas who control the countryside at night.

However, Russian officials insisted this week that no refugees would be forced to return to Chechnya, and that shelter would be made available in Ingushetia for those who did not want to go back.